During his last sabbatical away from the Armagh team back in May, he scored for Crossmaglen soccer club Cartwheel United in their surprise 2-0 win over Newry Celtic in the AOH Cup final.

The goal helped secure the club’s first piece of silverware in their 35-year history.

Three bigger soccer clubs came looking for him but on the following Wednesday morning, Clarke was at the US Embassy in Ballsbridge submitting a visa request for an 18-month J1 trainee programme in America.

Fast-forward to last Saturday night when he scored 0-4 from play and put Kildare to the sword in the All-Ireland SFC Round 4B qualifier. It has been some turnaround in a short period of time.

Clarke said: “People probably see the glitz and glamour out in Croke Park and they think it’s all lovely stuff but the secret is simple — it’s just hard work.

“Nothing more than that. It’s taken a lot of work to get back here to this level, challenging in an All-Ireland quarter-final.”

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“We asked ourselves did we put in the effort that was required? The answer was no. We made a promise that we wouldn’t let ourselves down again.

“It was important that we turned things around.

“We’ve now made it to an All-Ireland quarter-final — and it’s not where we want our season to end.

“We fully believe that we can go even further.

“This is where Armagh should be.”

What will please Armagh most is how they held their shape when Kildare came at them last weekend.

Their work-rate, hunger and discipline really came to the fore.

But any Armagh supporter will testify that the most enjoyable aspect of last weekend’s success over Kildare was seeing Clarke put his shoulder to the wheel again and letting the points fly over the bar.